Antonio Aguilar

The Mexican entertainer Antonio Aguilar, who has died aged 88, released more than 130 albums as a singer, starred in 164 films and toured in a large rodeo extravaganza for six decades before retiring in 2006. Friends recalled him as charro de oro (golden cowboy) and buen pelao (good guy).

He was born in Villanueva in the state of Zacatecas, northern Mexico, where his parents were farmers, and he grew up working in the fields. His family wanted him to become a priest, yet once in the seminary he focused on cultivating his vocal talents in the choir. Though he won a scholarship to study music in Los Angeles in the 1940s, he was deported.

He then started to work for $12 a week in the border town of Tijuana. He did well and was soon able to drive to Mexico City in a Lincoln convertible and buy the Minuit nightclub, a venue that attracted such customers as Gary Cooper and Pedro Infante, Mexico's greatest movie star.

In 1950 he married the singer Flor Silvestre and began his own career as a singer, initially of boleros. It was a struggle to be recognised, and the crooner was said to have been booed off stage in Puerto Rico. This led him to switch to rancheras (ballads with sentimental lyrics about love and peasant life) and corridos (narrative songs that tell the story of Mexican events, both historic and contemporary). These immediately found a large audience.

Aguilar began to star in films and pioneered the Mexican charro show, a combination of charreada (Mexican rodeo) and ranchera concert. These elaborate productions included dance performers and mariachi groups beside horsemen and bull riders. His wife and two sons, Pepe and Antonio Jr, all joined the show.

Although they were hugely successful in Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America, US promoters were sceptical. "They would tell me that the show had no value because no Latin American attraction could draw enough people," Aguilar recalled. His determination paid off and he became a huge star, selling out many nights at New York's Madison Square Garden and the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Aguilar was one of the first Mexican artists to develop a fan base in the US, appealing to both Mexican and non-Latino audiences.

Immensely proud of his nation, Aguilar always emphasised that his show demonstrated "what the true Mexico is all about". If his performances and films were simple stuff aimed at wowing families (he was called "the Mexican Roy Rogers"), there is no doubt he was a master of spectacle.

His international popularity made him interesting to Hollywood, and he starred with John Wayne in The Undefeated (1969). Performances in Mexican revolutionary-era epics such as El Ojo de Vidrio (The Glass Eye, 1969) and three films about the bandit king Heraclio Bernal helped make Aguilar a model for Mexico's poor; he played country boys forced to take up arms against wealthy landowners.

In the 1960s he expanded into producing and screenwriting. He produced, co-wrote and played the leading role in Emiliano Zapata (1970). Aguilar kept an eye on changing tastes, and in 1984 produced and starred in the hit film La Banda del Carro Rojo (The Red Car Gang) based on a narco-corrido about doomed drug smugglers.

He sold over 25m albums and in 2000 was awarded his star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Many who encountered him recall a friendly and unpretentious man. He is survived by his wife and sons; Pepe Jnr is one of Mexico's most popular singers.

Chris Strachwitz writes: I saw his show only once, in San Jose. It was packed with Mexicans. When I asked the man sitting next to me "How come all these people paid $30 to see this show?", he answered: "Everyone who likes horses is here!"

And it soon became clear what he meant. They had set up a full rodeo ring in the centre of a football field, taking up most of its space. Then there were musicians on all four corners: 1) a full mariachi band; 2) Los Alegres de Teran; 3) a full banda Sinaloense; 4) yet another group.

Antonio's relatives came out from the sidelines, riding beautiful horses around the field; then they sang together. Antonio and his wife performed duets. It was superb. What a musical show and what a horse show! The whole family were fine singers and great showpeople in the true sense of the word. They had gathered with their millions of fans, who came from the rural parts of Mexico, where horses even today represent huge symbols of success and pride.